Tuesday, 27 May 2014

A recent OECD study of leading economies found that immigration of the past 50 years has been of little or no benefit to them, being of neutral benefit at best. Immigrants since 1964 - roughly the time Canada's immigration system began to change into the "compassionate and fair" points-based system we have today - have proven to be no "panacea of economic growth."

However, the same study found that immigrants have a neutral effect on the tax base as well with their contributions to it and use of tax supported benefits leveling out. A Fraser Institute study begs to differ with the OECD on this point in the particular case of Canada. In any case I'll concede to the OECD's conclusion that immigrants haven't been a drain on taxes here in Canada. But they're not net contributors either.

If immigrants are not contributing to economic growth in any significant way while at the same time not contributing to the tax base in any significant way then what's the point of allowing immigrants into the country in the first place? In this situation it's immigration for immigration's sake.

Critics point out that most of the benefits, if not all the benefits, of the immigration system are enjoyed by the immigrants themselves since the vast majority of them come from societies of low consumption and poverty and move to a society of high consumption and affluence. Even if they live in poverty here in Canada most of them are still better of here than where they came from. Canada's immigration system, then, is just an extension of the foreign aid program and immigrants are, for the most part, just charity cases. It's The Blindside as immigration policy. We may be powerless to change the impoverished societies from whence immigrants come from but we can at least help a few of them by helping them escape those societies by bringing them here.

As for Canadians we get almost nothing beneficial out of this arrangement aside from the opportunity to pat ourselves on the back as a sign that we are the most civilized and compassionate people on the planet. And the reward is to experience the negative effects of it especially in our cities.

That being the case immigrants aren't the ones making a sacrifice when they move here since for them the payoff in the end can exceed the effort. They're making an investment and like all investors they're taking a risk in the blue chip stock that is Canada. It's Canadians who must sacrifice to accommodate them and suffer the costs or reap the gains of what they contribute to society and the economy. And it appears what they contribute is nearly nothing of significance so why should we support a mass immigration system when clearly it's not in our interest to do so?

Monday, 26 May 2014

“No work is shameful and all work is important. Those executives actually need a nannie and they need a custodian and they need restaurants to be open.”

Well when you put it that way it makes me feel bad for ever opposing the TFW program and mass immigration in the first place.

The above quote is attributed to Alberta Jobs Minister, Thomas Lukaszuk. As Alberta Jobs Minister you'd think he'd be more concerned about the wage suppressing and jobs displacing effects TFWs and immigrants impose on Albertans and Canadians as a whole but it's nice to see he has his priorities straight.

Monday, 19 May 2014

If annual awards were given out for "Ethnic Vote Grovelling Politician of the Year" B.C. premier Christy Clark would be a front runner. (Now that I think about it I think we should get an award running and present it to the winner merely as an act of protest if not disgust. Canada's largest province and city are in the midst of election campaigns and promise to produce a bounty of potential nominations this year. The competition could be fierce.)

I don't think anyone is stupid enough to believe - even those for whom this apology is directed at - that the apology this mediocre woman gave is sincere (she lost her seat in the last election but was given a second chance by running in a by-election in a "sure-bet" riding). Christy Clark is desperate for a political career and the ethnic vote scandal pretty much forced her to apologize if only as a publicity stunt to announce to all ethnic groups in B.C. that she's their woman in Victoria. And even though they may not believe her it's enough to know that they command enough power that when they ask a politician to jump they jump and that's the point of these demands.

The parallels between the cheap Chinese labour of yesteryear and the TFW scandals of today cannot be ignored.

The main target of the head tax were those being imported as indentured servants by landed Chinese in the province that modern parlance calls "snake heads." They enriched themselves by exploiting the desperation of their countrymen back in China by importing them into Canada as indentured servants all the while undercutting domestic Canadian labour in the province through the cheap labour on offer by these Chinese immigrants. Canadians were on the losing end of this unethical arrangement yet Canada has to apologize for acting in a way to protect its citizens from its negative effects. Welcome to the New Canada!

Fast forward to today and replace Chinese migrant labourer with TFW and snakehead with (insert company name here) and you have the same situation one hundred years later.

Suggestions put forward to tackle the TFW scandal include demanding a premium on each TFW to increasing application fees for each TFW and increasing fees for a LMO (Labour Market Opinion needed to justify the importation of a TFW) as financial disincentives to importing foreign workers. While not being called a head tax the intended effects are the same: make it financially inconvenient to import foreign labour so that a domestic labour force is favoured and their standard of living isn't undermined; foreign workers would only be sought in extreme cases.

If the Chinese feel they were being singled out at the time it's because they were the main cause of the problem. Today it's not just the Chinese but a broader grouping under the TFW program. And like the Chinese then TFWs are a problem now.

Perhaps its Canada that deserves the apology but if apologies are what they're looking for then why stop at Canada? Maybe they should hunt down the descendants of the Chinese snakeheads who exploited them in the first place and seek reparations but something tells that that will never happen. No political advantage to be had in that.

Tuesday, 6 May 2014

Apparently the government used job listings on sites like Kijiji and Craigslist to compile their labour data; data used to tell Canadians the nation faced a looming labour shortage and justifying the out of control TFW program and, by implication, record levels of immigration during a severe economic downturn.

And now they have readjusted that data to ignore job postings on Kijiji and like media and as a result job-vacancy rates plummet.

In other words the TFW program and unnecessary mass immigration was based on misleading information that exaggerated the alleged looming labour shortage for which TFWs and immigrants were imported into Canada to alleviate. So now we don't really have a looming labour shortage but rather a labour surplus thanks in whole to immigrants and TFWs.

The "looming labour shortage" caveat has been thrown around for years, decades even, by all political parties with little challenge to its veracity. Were past predictions correct employment should be plentiful now due to the mass exodus of baby-boomers from the labour market coupled with a growing economy. We needed record levels of immigration back then, so we were told, to meet then current labour market needs and to prepare for future shortages. But that's not how things shaped up so far has it? The boomers are leaving the workforce at a glacial pace and Canada's economy, while growing, is not growing fast enough to warrant the importation of so many people. And many of the jobs that existed back then - particularly in manufacturing - either no longer exist or have been moved abroad.

But that's the purpose of the "looming labour shortage" scare tactic. It's about convincing people to support policy today based on future events for which we have no way of knowing if they'll come to pass until that day comes. And when that day comes and you are wrong in your predictions, who cares? Everyone would have forgotten you made those predictions anyway and you'd still be making predictions about future events for which we have no way of knowing if they'll come to pass until that day arrives. It's a profession as old as prostitution. The Greeks has oracles, the Romans had augurs, we have economists.

Friday, 2 May 2014

It's Bob Rae vs. Jason Kenney in a pro-foreigner/anti-Canadian smack-down on the Twittersphere to decide who is the biggest immigrant vote chasing sell-out working in Ottawa.

The spat went something like this:

Bob Rae: You brought in nearly half a million immigrants with no recourse to permanent residency through the TFW program whereas I would allow them to settle permanently and continue to distort wage levels in the country to the disadvantage of Canadians so I'm more pro-immigrant than you and therefore immigrants should vote for me and the Liberal Party of Canada.

Jason Kenney: Uh-uh! I'm more pro-immigrant than you because I continued to flood the country with their surplus labour during one of the worst economic downturns in recent history even though doing so was a stupid idea and hurt Canadians' interests so that proves I and the Conservative Party are the most immigrant friendly so they should support us.

Bob Rae: So what! You're still anti-immigrant!

Jason Kenney: No, you are!

Bob Rae: No, you are!

Jason Kenney: No, you are!

Bob Rae: No, you are!

Jason Kenney: No, you are!

Bob Rae: No, you are!

Jason Kenney: Takes one to know one!

It's like listening to Nero play the violin as Rome burned. Rather, it's like listening to two dolts bicker over who should take credit for setting the fire in the first place.

It was a Twitter sissy-slap fight validating the criticism that the immigration system has become so politicized to where it's more about chasing existing immigrant votes - while importing more - and having less to do with meeting the real needs of the country and protecting the interests of Canadians.